Comments on: Guardian 24,222 – Araucaria/Is there a theme?

By: Paul B

Paul B — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:40:16 +0000

Anathema to some, this is an indirect (hidden) clue. I’ll get off the fence and say I hate it.

I see from my records (i.e. I think I’m right in saying) Auraracia (sic) often hides words at one end rather than in the middle of other words.

By: beermagnet

beermagnet — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:59:06 +0000

For SOMME I too was slightly disquieted by the brevity of the clue. We are not explicitly required to remove a part of a word, but use of the possessive “s” indicates that we must find one word in another. “The river of the sommelier” would be a much simpler clue for Somme. A is expecting us to take that extra step to translate “Wine waiter” to “Sommelier”.

The clue that I found nice was DOLGELLAU as it was pretty much the centre of the Welsh gold industry I believe.

By: ilancaron

ilancaron — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:39:38 +0000

How does “Wine waiter’s river” tell us to remove “lier”? (could be just an Araucarianism of course)

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:39:36 +0000

8dn: I’m with loonapick on this one:
L (Roman numeral) + USTRAL (many of the letters in Australia) = LUSTRAL (purificatory)

3dn: Perhaps Rev Graham is showing his classical education here. ‘Isosceles’ means having two equal sides (of triangles) but it comes from the Greek isoskeles, meaning equal legs. Two-legged creatures are generally better off if their legs are the same length… However, the clue is still definitely Araucarian, because it doesn’t have a definition per se, just an allusion!

By: charles arthur

charles arthur — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:24:05 +0000

15ac: build = figure as in ‘he has a good build/figure’

21ac: completely = altogether = (alto)(g)ether

By: charles arthur

charles arthur — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:21:59 +0000

21ac: completely = altogether = (alto)(g)ether

By: George Foot

George Foot — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:15:22 +0000

15 ac I assume the answer is build but don’t understand what figure has to do with it.

By: muck

muck — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:04:42 +0000

21ac: ‘Completely lost voice and note from anaesthetic’ has to be ETHER, but why?

8dn: I had LUSTRAL as the adjective from lustrum, as Owenj says.

By: owenjonesuk

owenjonesuk — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:44:05 +0000

Is 8 down a triple definition? Lustral can be the adjective from lustrum, a purificatory ritual, as well as a drug (‘number’) and being clued by ‘many in australia’.

Got stuck on the bottom right corner.